‘Red Dawn’: It’s a yawn

Everything said and done, some movies only work in a certain time period.

The original version of “Vanishing Point” — the 1971 existentialist tale of a man’s attempt to drive a white 1970 Dodge Challenger across the desert from Denver to San Francisco in 15 hours for no defined reason — became a cult classic because, in the period the movie was released, it made perfect sense for someone to try something so pointless.

A 1997 remake of “Vanishing Point” failed on every level (except in its use of a white ’70 Challenger — still the greatest car ever manufactured) largely because it attempted to produce a reason for the trip: A man’s desperate attempt to get home to his wife in time for the birth of their child. By the simple act of introducing a reason for the drive, the movie lost all reason for being interesting.

This is the problem with the new version of “Red Dawn,” now on sale on BD and DVD. It’s really not that interesting.

The original “Red Dawn” was released during the Reagan administration in 1984. In those dear, departed days of the Cold War — with the president of the United States vilifying the Soviet Union as the “evil empire” — there was a certain plausibility to the idea of Soviet, Cuban and Nicaraguan troops invading the relatively unpopulated Mountain Time Zone states and Great Plains region from the south.

In the 2012 version, it’s the North Koreans (apparently backed by revitalized, ultranationalistic Russians, who supposedly have invaded the East Coast) occupying the U.S. Northwest.

Wait a minute — North Korea? Admittedly, it does have a fairly large army that’s great for marching up and down a peninsula (check out what it did between 1950 and ’53). But have you ever seen anything about that nation having the transport capability to convey enough troops across the Pacific Ocean to occupy even one of the Aleutian Islands, let alone at least the state of Washington? Neither have I. And aren’t the Russians still basically trying to rebuild their military — which, as it turned out, really wasn’t all that awesome during the Cold War? I think so, too.

At first, China was, much more logically, cast as the villain in this remake. But after the movie was shot, the bean counters prevailed and it was decided that North Koreans should be the bad guys. China, it turns out, is too large a movie market to risk irritating the audience. Hence, anything you see that features a North Korean insignia — uniform patches, flags, logos on vehicles, whatever — was digitally altered from the original Chinese.

In the 1984 “Red Dawn,” you had a sense of the isolation confronting Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell and the rest of the “Wolverines.” They are virtually cut off from civilization — save for occasionally sneaking into their now-depressing and stripped-bare Colorado town to garner information or visit the imprisoned Harry Dean (“Avenge me, boys! Avenge me!”) Stanton at the drive-in theater-turned-re-education camp, they exist in the wilderness. It has the feel of what a group of guerrilla fighters likely would face in World War III.

The 2012 version misses this entirely. Chris “Thor” Hemsworth, Josh Peck and crew regularly stroll the streets of Spokane, Wash. (some of which bear an eerie resemblance to thoroughfares in Detroit — wait, that’s where parts of the movie were shot), and frankly, conditions don’t look all that bad. Stores are open and well-stocked — the Wolverines even manage to grab a feast at a thriving Subway outlet. In the ’84 movie, it was obvious that the dirty commies had stolen everything that wasn’t nailed down — and many things that were.

Even in its list of co-stars, the 1984 classic was far superior. It featured Academy Award winner Ben “Sam the Lion” Johnson as the ever-helpful Mr. Mason and noted character actor Powers Boothe (who was robbed of the Oscar that was rightfully his for 1987’s “Extreme Prejudice”) as downed pilot Lt. Col. Andrew “Andy” Tanner. Who do we have in the remake? Jeffrey Dean Morgan (the father of Dean and Sam Winchester on TV’s “Supernatural”) playing some GI who wants a radio stolen from the North Koreans.

The first “Red Dawn” is arguably one of the three best movies of the 1980s (the other two being “Scarface” and “Repo Man”). It had characters the audience could identify with and created a sense of tension that holds up well today. The remake, though, fails to engage the viewer. In short, in the 2012 version, you really don’t care who wins.

Extras: The DVD version (fortunately, I didn’t spend the extra money to buy BD) has none. Which means you don’t won’t be tempted to listen to a director’s fumbling explanations of what went wrong.

The bottom line: The “Red Dawn” of 1984 still makes regular rounds on cable TV. I predict that after the 2012 version finishes up its initial television showings, it will be consigned to the chamberpot of history.

Robert Kolarik

One Response

[...] Red Dawn MGM, 114 minutes, PG-13 DVD: $29.98 BD/DVD with digital copy: $39.99 Rotten Tomatoes rating: 11% Reboot of 1980s action flick stars Chris Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, and Isabel Lucas as the teens fighting the invading forces (North Koreans this time) dropping from the sky in a surprise attack on the United States. Soon the entire city of Spokane, Washington is under enemy control, but a group of courageous teenagers has decided to fight back. The 1980s version was somewhat plausible, as we were still fighting the Cold War and Reagan was making speeches about “the Evil Empire.” But the North Koreans? Taking over the northeast U.S. by themselves? Bah. No extras listed. Robert Kolarik spent his own money on it and he recommends that you do not. [...]

Top Videos

Search Blog

Keyword search across all the entries in this blog.

Search:

Search in http://blog.mysanantonio.com/dvd/

Keyword search across all the entries in this blog.

Search

Archive

Browse previous blog posts by month and year of entry. You’ll see all the posts for that time period.